bowd·ler·ize

(bōd′lə-rīz′, boud′-)

tr.v. bowd·ler·ized, bowd·ler·iz·ing, bowd·ler·iz·es

To remove material that is considered offensive or objectionable from (a book, for example); expurgate.

[After Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), who published an expurgated edition of Shakespeare in 1818.]

bowd′ler·ism n.

bowd′ler·i·za′tion (-lər-ĭ-zā′shən) n.

bowd′ler·iz′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

bowdlerizer - a person who edits a text by removing obscene or offensive words or passages; "Thomas Bowdler was a famous expurgator"

bowdleriser, expurgator

editor, editor in chief - a person responsible for the editorial aspects of publication; the person who determines the final content of a text (especially of a newspaper or magazine)

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Dog owners know that the relationship between a she-dog and her male master is the epitome of devotion shown by Man's best friend, and in this case, Sir Toby seems to reciprocate the feelings of his "beagle true bred." Quite surprisingly, Mihnea Gheorghiu, the prudish apparatchik and bowdlerizer of the 1950s, turns out to be a misogynist who chooses to use vulgar language where Shakespeare's character uses innocent metaphor.

Appropriating Shakespeare in communist Romania: a case study in the distortion of women's identities in translation

"Of course," the politically correct bowdlerizer remonstrated, "we'll have to delete that line."

Been there, pun that! Wordplay in real-life situations

During the past two decades, scholars have dispelled the notion that Sophia Peabody Hawthorne was merely a copyist, rightly forgotten as a minimally talented lady-painter, or unhappily remembered as the prudish bowdlerizer of her husband's notebooks.

Sophia Peabody Hawthorne and "the--what?": creative copies in art and literature

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